TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- President Mohammad Khatami has not retreated from his overture to the United States, despite a
recent speech in which he flayed Washington and said Iran did not need relations with it, Iran's foreign minister was quoted as saying.
Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said Iran still wanted
relations based on "detente and mutual interests" with the
United States, the English-language Tehran Times reported
Saturday.
Khatami, a moderate cleric who took office in August, broke
with nearly two decades of hostility and called for cultural
exchanges with the United States in a CNN interview last month.
But on Monday, in a speech at the shrine of late
revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, he said
Iranians do "not need the United States to come close to us."
"There has been speculation that there has been a change in
President Khatami's stance toward the U.S. following his
speech Monday, but this is not the case," Kharrazi said.
The tone of Monday's speech was different because Khatami was
addressing an Iranian audience, he said. "But as far as the
content is concerned, there has been no change," he added.

The United States severed ties with Iran after Muslim
militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November 1979
and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Since then, Iranian officials have referred to the United
States as the "Great Satan," and Washington has accused
Tehran of being the world's top sponsor of terrorism.

KUWAIT CITY,XINHUA - King Fahd Ibn Abdul Aziz of Saudi
Arabia Saturday received a letter from Iranian President Mohammad
Khatami, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

The letter was delivered by Iranian Ambassador to the kingdom Mohammed
Rida Nouri during a meeting with Fahd in Mecca, the news agency said,
adding that the contents of the letter were not disclosed.

During the meeting, the two sides "reviewed bilateral relations and
discussed issues on the international and Islamic arena."

A thaw has set in the Saudi-Iranian ties since last year, especially
after Khatami assumed office last August.

Khatami has since repeated Iran's readiness to improve bilateral
relations and make joint efforts to maintain regional security and
stability, which has been responded by Saudi Arabia.

The past year saw exchange of visits by senior officials of the two
countries, including Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi's visit to
Saudi Arabia and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz to Iran.

The relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran became tense after Iran's
Islamic revolution in 1979. Saudi Arabia accused Iran of exporting
Islamic revolution and supporting the Shiite Muslims in the kingdom,
which is dominated by Sunni Muslims.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- President Mohammad Khatami has not retreated
from his overture to the United States, despite a recent speech in
which he flayed Washington and said Iran did not need relations
with it, Iran's foreign minister was quoted as saying today.

Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said Iran still wanted relations
based on ``detente and mutual interests'' with the United States,
the English-language Tehran Times reported.

Khatami, a moderate cleric who took office in August, broke with
nearly two decades of hostility and called for cultural exchanges
with the United States in a Cable News Network interview last
month.

But on Monday, in a speech at the shrine of the late
revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, he said Iranians
do ``not need the United States to come close to us.''

``There has been speculation that there has been a change in
President Khatami's stance toward the U.S. following his speech
Monday, but this is not the case,'' Kharrazi said.

The tone of Monday's speech was different because Khatami was
addressing an Iranian audience, he said. ``But as far as the
content is concerned, there has been no change,'' he added.

The United States severed ties with Iran after Muslim militants
stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in November 1979 and took 52
Americans hostage for 444 days.

Since then, Iranian officials have referred to the United States
as the ``Great Satan,'' and Washington has accused Tehran of being
the world's top sponsor of terrorism.

By George Gedda
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Severe discriminatory practices have had a
``devastating impact'' on the Baha'i faith in Iran, according to a
report by an official commission.

Iran was one of the countries that, according to the report,
discriminate against followers of the major religions. In addition
to Baha'is, the report said Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Jews and
Buddhists all suffer detention, torture and death.

Iran has taken steps to eliminate Baha'i adherents by denying
them the right to assemble and confiscating their property, said
the report, released Friday. It said more than 200 Baha'is have
been killed since the 1979 revolution in Iran.

``The climate of intimidation in Iran has also severely and
comparably affected certain Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian
communities, whose members have been victims of harassment,
persecution and extrajudicial killing,'' the study said.

The report was prepared for President Clinton and Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright by the Advisory Committee on Religious
Freedom Abroad, established a year ago and composed of leading
scholars on religion.

The report cited a Russian law passed last year as an example of
how government actions can threaten members of a faith group. The
law denies legal rights depending on how long a religion has had a
presence in Russia.

``Since its adoption, there have been increasing reports of
efforts by local officials to restrict activities of religious
minorities,'' the report said.

It also noted that several European countries, including
Belgium, France and Germany, recently have established commissions
of inquiry on sects, partly in response to fears of violent cults.

``Unless these commissions focus their work on investigating
illegal acts, they run the risk of denying individuals the right to
freedom of religion or belief,'' the study said.

It said that in societies where the government imposes strict
political ideology and control over the populace, including on
religious matters, many individuals and communities of faith
operate underground and risk ``harassment, detention and
imprisonment.''

``In communist countries such as China, Laos, North Korea and
Vietnam, the governments permit limited freedom to worship,'' the
report said. ``In Vietnam, Buddhists and Christians who act
independently of the officially approved temple and church are
subject to arrest and harassment.''

``In China, members of the government-registered religious
institutions practice their faith within the strictures of the
government. Tibetan Buddhists, Muslim Uighurs, unregistered
Protestants and Roman Catholics are subjected to widespread
harassment, detentions, incarceration and persecution.''

TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) - Thousands of Iranians Thursday
attended a gathering organized by a liberal Islamist opposition
group, days after a similar meeting was canceled because of an
attack by hard-line militants.

Residents said about 5,000 people attended a memorial
service in Tehran for Mehdi Bazargan, a former prime minister
and founder of the liberal Islamist Iran Freedom Movement (IFM),
who died in 1995.

The crowds packed a mosque and its courtyard to hear
speakers, including the controversial reformist Muslim
philosopher Abdolkarim Sorush, who praised Bazargan for his
commitment to basic liberties.

Police stood guard in surrounding streets to prevent new
attacks and there were only minor scuffles between IFM backers
and several dozen militants of the hard-line Ansar-e Hizbollah
(Supporters of the Party of God) who demonstrated outside the
mosque, the residents said.

Iran's Interior Ministry has denounced the attack Tuesday by
the militants on the mosque and said the attackers should be
prosecuted.

The attack was the latest in a series of actions by
hard-line militants, which fly in the face of moderate President
Mohammad Khatami's stated policies to guarantee civil liberties
and reinforce the rule of law.

Newspapers said the militants also disrupted planned
memorial services for Bazargan in Isfahan in central Iran
Tuesday and a similar gathering in the northeastern city of
Mashhad last week.

IFM leader Ebrahim Yazdi told Reuters in Dubai by telephone
Thursday authorities had promised to provide police protection
so that memorials could also be held in Isfahan and Mashhad in
the near future.

Bazargan served the Islamic republic's founder, the late
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, for nine months as the first prime
minister after the 1979 revolution.

The hard-line groups have repeatedly attacked bookstores and
movie theaters for selling books or showing films deemed
un-Islamic as well as opposition and liberal intellectual
gatherings.

Police have usually not intervened, reinforcing widely held
beliefs that the groups enjoy the tacit support of powerful
conservative circles opposed to Khatami.

The activities of the IFM consist mostly of issuing open
letters protesting against lack of freedom in Iran. Its meetings
have often been disrupted by hard-line Islamic militants. The
group is not officially authorized but has been tolerated.

DUBAI, (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright does not see herself going to Iran even in the
long-term future, a Saudi newspaper on Thursday quoted her as
saying.

``I do not see myself going there in the near, medium or
long term future,'' Albright said when asked by Asharq al-Awsat
newspaper if she thought she would be visiting Iran in her
capacity as secretary of state.

Albright said in the interview that Washington was
encouraged by the address earlier this month of Iran's President
Mohammad Khatami to the American people in which he called for a
``crack in the wall of mistrust'' between Iran and the United
States.

But she reiterated Washington's stand on Iran.
``We are looking for a change in the Iranian government's
policy on terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and the Middle
East peace process,'' she told the newspaper.

Khatami in his address made no direct proposal for dialogue
between Tehran and Washington, but stirred speculation about a
thaw with Washington after he called for a dialogue between the
two countries' academics, writers, artists and journalists.

Asked what she thought of Khatami's call for the cultural
dialogue, Albright said: ``We will study this possibility...It
is obvious there is serious discussion going on about how
quickly Iran can change into a society living under the rule of
law.''

Iran has repeatedly denied U.S. accusations it supported
terrorism, was seeking weapons of mass destruction and backed
militants trying to sabotage the Middle East peace process.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said Tehran would not
consider a thaw in relations unless Washington ceased its
hostile attitude towards Tehran, released frozen Iranian assets
and reviewed its ``unconditional support'' for Israel.

Washington blocked Iranian assets after militants occupied
the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979 and took 52 Americans
hostage. It broke diplomatic ties with Iran in 1980.

TEHRAN -XINHUA - On the eve of the International Qods
(Jerusalem) Day, Iran Thursday called on all Muslim and Arab states to
unite their efforts to "liberate" Jerusalem and all other occupied
lands from the Israeli occupation.

All Muslim and Arab nations should do their utmost, through unity and
Islamic solidarity, for liberation of Jerusalem and all the occupied
territories and restoration of the Palestinian rights, a statement
issued by the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.

It called on all Muslim and Arab states "not to lose a moment in trying
to control, contain and isolate the Qods occupying regime (Israel),"
the Iranian official news agency IRNA reported.

Such efforts will help promote peace, stability and security in the
Middle East and further help to restore the Palestinians' rights, the
statement said.

During the current week, Iranian people were urged to hold nationwide
rallies on Friday to mark the International Qods Day to show Iran's
"relentless combat" against Israel and the United States.

Strong-worded statements from various state and private institutions
were printed on mass-circulated newspapers, calling for massive turnout
on Friday to support and defend the Palestinian people in their
struggles against Israel.

Mass media and government officials slammed the United States for its
"unreasonable and broad-based political, international, economic,
military and propaganda support" for Israel's "state terrorism and
expansionist policies."

The Iranian Foreign Ministry stated that the country's principled
policy seeks the full restoration of Palestinian rights, liberation of
all occupied territories including Jerusalem and self-determination for
the Palestinian nation.

Top Iranian leaders, including the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei and President Mohammad Khatami, have made their call for
active turnout of the people. They have also ruled out possible
rapprochement between Iran and the United States.

Observers here said that the Iranian nation would not miss the
opportunity to "express their anger at the U.S." for its crimes against
the Iranian people in the past, as Iranian leaders mentioned recently,
and its support for the Israeli government.

In 1980, late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
announced the last Friday of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan as the
International Qods Day in order to draw the attention of the world
Muslims to this issue.

Iran has been insisting on its opposition to the "unjust so-called
peace process" and believing that no peace and stability would be
observed in the Middle East if Jerusalem and the other occupied lands
remain at the Israeli hands.

TEHRAN,(Reuters) - Iran's Interior Ministry
denounced an attack by Islamic militants on a gathering of a
liberal opposition group and said the attackers should be
prosecuted, the official news agency IRNA reported on Wednesday.

The attack was the latest in a series of actions by hardline
militants, which fly in the face of moderate President Mohammad
Khatami's stated policies to guarantee civil liberties and
reinforce the rule of law.

IRNA said the ministry ``expressed regret over the
disturbance caused by a number of people who prevented the
memorial ceremony for former prime minister Mehdi Bazargan on
Tuesday afternoon.''

``In a statement, the ministry pointed out that the
gathering was held with prior permission...and condemned such
moves,'' IRNA said. ``It also called on the Justice Ministry to
decisively confront those whom it described as 'known
elements'.''

Newspapers on Wednesday reported that militants from Ansar-e
Hizbollah (Supporters of the Party of God) attacked members of
the liberal Islamist opposition group Iran Freedom Movement
(IFM) in Tehran and the central city of Isfahan, disrupting
planned memorial services for Bazargan, the group's founder.

Bazargan died in 1995. He served the Islamic republic's
founder, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, for nine months
as the first prime minister after the 1979 revolution.

``Apparently some intend to create insecurity and chaos by
deliberately ignoring rules and making a mockery of law and
order,'' the Interior Ministry statement said.

Iran Daily newspaper said several dozen militants closed the
gates of a mosque in northern Tehran to prevent a crowd of
several hundred people from entering the building where a
memorial service was due to be held for Bazargan.

It said IFM officials then told the crowd to disperse to
avoid a confrontation with the militants. It said riot police
later arrived but no clashes took place.

IFM has said militants also disrupted a similar memorial on
Friday in the northeastern city of Mashhad.

The hardline groups have repeatedly attacked bookstores and
cinemas for selling books or showing films deemed un-Islamic as
well as opposition and liberal intellectual gatherings.

Police have usually not intervened, reinforcing widely held
beliefs that the groups enjoy the tacit support of powerful
conservative circles opposed to Khatami.

The activities of the IFM consist mostly of issuing open
letters protesting lack of freedom in Iran. Its meetings have
often been disrupted by hardline Islamic militants. The group is
not officially authorised but has been tolerated.